Imagine what it might be like to live in Medieval
times when brutality was simply a fact of life and
anyone could plunge headlong into misfortune
that would see their neighbours celebrating a public
flogging. Think of churchly proscriptions against
such ungodly sins as neglecting one's prayers
gambling, grumbling of rule by tyrants, engaging
in non-marital sex, in adultery and imbibing alcohol
oh yes, same-sex relations, or witchcraft and it's
the stocks if you're fortunate, flogging and quite
possibly the spectacle of a public hanging. Imagine
villagers crowding one another in the excitement
of witnessing the degradation of one well known
among themselves, humiliated, humbled and
embittered. Imagine such events take place
in this era of civilized enlightenment where
such advances in human rights were bypassed
for the greater glory of god and you're in Southeast
Asia, an exotic venue of the scrupulously faithful.
Imagine the very authority who delineated these
assaults against public morality and the sacred trust
himself wincing in pain under the flogger's whip
whose lapse into adultery brought him to account.
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